With all of the attention focused on Pope Benedict XVI’s Mass, with its altar in deep center field at Nationals Park in Washington, it’s likely that few worshippers took notice of the press box behind home plate.

If they had, they would have noticed a half-inch-thick pane of glass cracked in hundreds (if not thousands) of places, but still miraculously held together in one piece. It wasn’t some decoration planned for the papal Mass, nor was it some smart-alecky window display by Urban Outfitters. “Stained glass,” remarked one press-box wag after Mass was over.

It wasn’t some foul ball hit by Ryan Zimmerman or Lastings Milledge that hit the glass just the wrong way. Rather, a reporter in the press box tried to slide the pane to have an unfettered view of the baseball action on the diamond. But the pane got off the track, and the stress of the motion resulted in the fractured glass.